Silver Screen Sunday - 50/50

Although I saw this movie a week or two ago, it greatly deserves this prize of being my first movie review in all of blogland.

I loved this movie, and perhaps that's because I identified so readily with being ill (all the time, when I was younger) or being in the hospital. However, I think that pretty much anyone can relate to some aspect of this movie and anyone who doesn't cry in it most likely doesn't have a soul.

First of all, I thought the acting was impeccable. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was the perfect vehicle for this emotional roller coaster. Seth Rogen, who I think has played out the stoner/slacker role one too many times, was actually appropriately cast as the best friend who doesn't seem like he gets it. And Anna Kendrick (yes, Bella's friend in Twilight) has stepped out of the twilight and into the indie-it-girl light. The relationships between all these characters seems very real and down to earth.

SPOILER:

The complexity of these relationships is revealed throughout the story to show that everything is not as it seems. Rogen becomes a supportive friend, Kendrick's professionalism is swapped for a budding romance. Angelica Houston becomes the mama bear and Gordon-Levitt lets her.

The only thing I would have changed about it? Gordon-Levitt didn't need to live. Everything after he is knocked out for surgery is just the same, tired Hollywood thing. Everything does not need to be tied up with neat little ribbons and the audience can be left to wonder. Just as the movie begins in the middle of someone's life, it should end in the middle of it, too. Knowing whether or not Gordon-Levitt lives or dies is not essential to the story.

Also, I loathe the logline to this movie: "It takes a pair to beat the odds," as it implies that Rogen is such a good friend to help Gordon-Levitt through this hard time, when the movie isn't even about that.